Movies
LOADS of New Info on Mattel’s ‘Ghostbusters’ Action Figures!
While we learned of a whole slew of new Ghostbusters action figures at this year’s Toy Fair in New York, a new interview in Toy Fair Magazine gives some real insite to just how far Mattel is willing to go with their rights. Beyond the break you can see what Associate Brand Manager of Mattel Toys Scott Neitlich has to say about the 25th Anniversary of Ray, Peter, Egon and Winston’s ghost hunting business and the toys that will follow.
Here’s a run down of what we learned in the new article, which you can read by picking up at newsstands now (Star Trek on cover):
-You won’t be able to find these in stores because the shelf space is reserved for “new” and “popular” toys
-At the time of the interview, they have the likeness rights to Harold Ramis (Dr. Egon Spengler), Dan Aykoryd (Dr. Raymond Stantz), Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddmore) and are still trying to get Bill Murray to approve his sculpt of (Dr. Peter Venkman) — sounds like Murray is going to hold-up fans once again.
-They would like to expand the series and do figures of Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), Dana (Sigourney Weaver) and even Walter Peck (William Atherton)!
-They hope the first release will be Peter Venkman, but plan on unrolling the figures as likeness’ were approved.
-Each 6-inch figure comes packed with a ghost. Slimer will 100% be the first with plans on bringing us a possible shrunken Stay Puft Marshmallow Man ghost, the librarian ghost and the taxi ghost.
-They’d like Peter Venkman to come as the slimed version, with Slimer, first.
-The reason the 6-inch figures look better than the 12 (in my opinion) is because the 6-inch were sculpted by the famous Four Horsemen, while Mattel did the 12-inch sculpts (boo).
-The plan is to get the first 6-inch out by the San Diego Comic Con, with the first 12-inch by Father’s Day. A new 6-inch will follow every other month, while a new 12-inch comes every quarter.
-There will be variants (who has this type of money, crap), including “slimed”, “marshmallow mess”, and “red slime” (from Ghostbusters II).
-They have pretty much free reign on the animated series The Real Ghostbusters.
-If a third movie is made, they will make figures based on that, which will probably make retailers.
That’s it!
Click any image to see it larger and then head over to Figures.com for LOADS of images:
Movies
‘Desperation’ – Sam Raimi and ‘Final Destination Bloodlines’ Directors Teaming for Stephen King Movie
Stephen King’s 1996 novel Desperation is headed back to the screen, with Jeff Sneider breaking the news on The InSneider that Sam Raimi, Stephen King, and Final Destination Bloodlines directors Adam B. Stein and Zach Lipovsky are coming together for the film.
Sam Raimi will produce the upcoming Desperation movie, while Stein and Lipovsky are on board to direct. Searchlight Pictures is the studio attached to the feature film project.
Published in 1996, Stephen King’s novel Desperation was previously turned into a made-for-TV movie starring Ron Perlman, Tom Skerritt and Steven Weber back in 2006.
Wikipedia reminds, “Desperation is a story about several people who, while traveling along the desolated Highway 50 in Nevada, get abducted by Collie Entragian, the deputy of the fictional mining town of Desperation. Entragian uses various pretexts for the abductions, from an arrest for drug possession to ‘rescuing’ a family from a nonexistent gunman. It becomes clear to the captives that Entragian has been possessed by an evil being named Tak, who has control over the surrounding desert wildlife and must change hosts to keep itself alive.
“They begin to fight for their freedom, sanity and lives before realizing that if they are ever to escape Desperation, they must trap Tak in the place from which he came.”
Desperation was published at the same time as Stephen King’s own “mirror novel” titled The Regulators, which shares characters but takes place in an alternate universe.
The union of Sam Raimi and Stephen King is an exciting one for fans of both Raimi and King, and there’s a nice bit of full circle history there too. As you may recall, it was Stephen King’s review of The Evil Dead that Raimi credits for saving and legitimizing his indie debut feature.
And the rest is history! Stay tuned for more on this developing story.
You must be logged in to post a comment.